Escaping from this Life
by PrincessAlica
Summary: My response to a challenge to write a drabble based on pg 397 of Scarlett.  Here it is.


In response to CaptScarlett's challenge that I write a 250 word drabble based on page 397 of GWTW or Scarlett… The original words are in italics. Trying to get the creative juices flowing.

_Outside, she gulped the crisp air with desperation. Then she ran. Her train glittered in the lamplight on the stairs, on the gala red carpet, stretching up behind her as if it were floating free in the air. "The Robillard carriage. Quickly!" she begged the attendant._

_Responding to her urgency, he ran to the corner. Scarlett ran after him, heedless of her train on the rough bricks of the sidewalk. She had to get away before anyone could stop her. When she was safely inside the carriage, she breathed in short gasps. "Take me to South Broad," she told the driver when she could speak. "I'll show you which house." Mother left these people, she thought, she married Pa. She can't blame me if I run away, too._

Her brain was churning with thoughts of rebellion and anger as she settled into the carriage seat. God, how she was sick of living under her grandfather's rules, sick of trying to conform to a society in which she had never fit - A fat lot of good that had done. Rhett had been the one to free her from those rules, and then the one to push her under only to climb on top of her, holding her under, only so that he could scramble to shore. She was furious with him, her heart pounding with anger and indignation. And yet she knew that she could forgive him, if only he would come.

At least the O'Hara's accepted her and liked her. She understood why her mother had left here, this society with its stifling rules. How thankful this experience made her feel so grateful for having grown up in the county instead of here. Life had been so sweet back at Tara before the war. It had been an ideal childhood.

She wished for Rhett to hurry up and come and take her away. She had been certain that given a few days to think over things that he would follow her here, and then everything would be all right. But here it had been nearly a month and she was still waiting. But it was just a game , with him it was always a game. Everything was. And now she only needed to wait for the chance to call his bluff. Maybe she shouldn't have run, maybe she should have stayed a few more days until she was feeling better before traveling. Even a month later she feeling a little more tired and run down than usual… but her thoughts were cut short as she recognized her location. She pointed out the house to the driver, who pulled up to the house and stopped. He helped her from the carriage and her feet rushed away from her mother's family to the family of her father.

_She could hear the music and laughter through the door to Maureen's kitchen. Her two fists beat on it until Jamie opened it. "It's Scarlett!" he said with pleased surprise. "Come in, Scarlett darling, and meet Colum. He's here at last, the best of all the O'Haras, saving only yourself."_

_Now that he was close to her, Scarlett could see that Colum was years younger than Jamie and not really all that much like her father, except for his round face and short stature among his taller cousins and nephews. Colum's blue eyes were darker, more serious, and his round chin had a firmness that Scarlett had seen on her father's face only when he was on horseback, commanding his mount to take a jump higher than sanity allowed. Colum smiled when Jamie introduced them, and his eyes were almost lost in a network of creases. Yet the warmth gleaming from them made Scarlett feel that meeting her was the happiest experience of his entire life._

_"And are we not the luckiest family on the face of the earth, to have such a creature one of us?" he said. "It only wants a tiara to complete your gold splendor, Scarlett darling. If the Queen of the Fairies could see you, wouldn't she tear her spangled wings to ribbons in envy? Let the little girls have a look, Maureen, it will give them something to aspire to, to grow up as breathtaking as their cousin."_


End file.
